LinkedIn Suffers Massive Data Breach 665k72 Personal Details of 92 Percent s Being Sold Online: Report

Of the 700 million LinkedIn s whose data have been compromised, the hacker has published one million sample dataset on the Dark Web. 421m

By Tasneem Akolawala | Updated: 29 June 2021 18:48 IST

LinkedIn Suffers Massive Data Breach, Personal Details of 92 Percent s Being Sold Online: Report

LinkedIn had suffered a data breach in April wherein 500 million credentials were exposed m6ya

Highlights

Hacker reportedly exploited official LinkedIn API to obtain data
The leaked dataset said to also include inferred salaries of s
Dataset reportedly includes names, phone numbers, location data

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LinkedIn data of over 700 million s has reportedly been exposed in a new breach. LinkedIn has a total of 756 million s, which means that the data of more than 92 percent of its s has been compromised in this new breach. The new dataset obtained by an unknown hacker is said to consist of personal details of LinkedIn s, including phone numbers, physical addresses, geolocation data, and inferred salaries. In April, LinkedIn confirmed a data breach affecting 500 million subscribers wherein personal details like email address, phone number, workplace information, full name, IDs, links to their social media s, and gender details were listed online.

According to LinkedIn, it did not face a data breach, but rather the information was gained from scraping the network. In an emailed statement, LinkedIn told Gadgets 360: "While we're still investigating this issue, our initial analysis indicates that the dataset includes information scraped from LinkedIn as well as information obtained from other sources. This was not a LinkedIn data breach and our investigation has determined that no private LinkedIn member data was exposed. Scraping data from LinkedIn is a violation of our of Service and we are constantly working to ensure our ' privacy is protected."

The new dataset of 700 million s is also on sale on the Dark Web, wherein the hacker has posted a sample set of 1 million s for buyers. RestorePrivacy was the first to spot this listing on the Dark Web and the sample data was cross-verified by 9to5Google. The sample dataset that has been published on the Dark Web includes information like email addresses, full names, phone numbers, physical addresses, geolocation records, LinkedIn name and profile URL, inferred salaries, personal and professional experience/ background, gender, and social media s and names.

Your Data Is at Grave Risk: Here Are 6 Ways to Protect It From Hackers

9to5Google reached out directly to the hacker who says that the data was obtained by exploiting the LinkedIn API to harvest information that people to the site. The dataset does not include s, but the information is still very valuable and could amount to identity theft or phishing attempts.

To protect your data, it is important to look at the safety, security, and privacy settings of the apps you use and make sure that these are set up properly. Ensure that you have set up a strong and indulge in the habit of changing them frequently. Also, enable two-factor authentication (2FA) wherever available, and do not accept connections, especially on LinkedIn and Facebook, from unknown people. Subscribe to sites like Have I Been Pwned for notifications if your email address is part of a data breach.

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